Looking back before looking forward, part II
Last week’s Messenger was about three ideas that have informed Socratus’ work over the last three years: Collective Wisdom, Immersion and Ecosystems. In case you forgot to click on that link, here it is again:
Looking back before looking forward, part I
While we are putting the final touches on the Messenger 3.0, we thought we should go back to some of the key ideas and events that got us where we are and point towards where we want to go. This week’s Messenger will focus on a few key ideas; next week’s on key events. And then:
This week’s Messenger is on three events that show those ideas in action. The first of the three events was a Wicked Sprint on Recasting the Fertilizer Subsidy in 2020, just after the first wave of the pandemic was receding.
Recasting the Fertilizer Subsidy
The Messenger - Issue #16: Recasting the Fertilizer Subsidy
This week is a back to the future messenger, where our guest illustrator, Bhargavi Nagendra tells us the story of India's fertilizer subsidy and how it might be recast to address a range of problems: ecological sustainability, climate change, farmer flourishing and so on.
You might not know it, but the fertilizer subsidy is one of the largest expenses for the Indian exchequer. That subsidy used to be in the range 100,000 crores, but the war in Ukraine more than doubled it last year. And since it’s mostly for fossil fuel based fertilizers - urea in particular - it’s contribution to India’s carbon emissions is substantial. In other words: everything from food sufficiency to geopolitics and climate change are implicated in this one line item.
On Migration and Citizenship
The first wave of the pandemic saw an exodus of migrant labourers from cities mostly in Southern and Western India (plus the NCR) to their homes in UP, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand etc. Socratus organized it’s first citizen’s jury in July 2021 in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, in response to these tragedies. The next two links are to Messenger editions that documented this event.
The Messenger - Issue #7 - Migration and Citizenship
This week we are revisiting a topic dear to our hearts - migration and citizenship. When is a migrant a citizen? When is that migrant an resident or an alien? Should anyone ever be an alien?
The Messenger - Issue #12: On Citizenship
Citizenship is often paid lip-service, something that we all "respect" without doing anything in support. But citizenship isn't window-dressing in a wicked world: it's a necessary piece of the puzzle, for the wicked problems are too complex to be addressed by any institution howsoever powerful. The more we enable problem solving capacity in citizens, th…
Citizenship and Ecosystems
Continuing with Citizenship, but adding a layer of ecosystem thinking to it, is our series of engagements with SwitchON foundation on climate change and citizenship. You can read more about those here:
Ecosystems of citizenship
This week’s Messenger is based on an ongoing collaboration with the SwitchON Foundation. We thank them for the opportunity to co-create citizen spaces. Socratus’ work was led by Devjit Mittra, Smriti Tiwari, Nithin Vemula and Nitya Jadeja. Stage & Space
That’s it for the retrospective. Give us another week (or two at most) and we will be back with the Messenger 3.0.